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Since the dawn of the App Store, Apple has protected developers (and their own business interests) by outlawing refunds, but that policy could soon find itself in the crosshairs.
The Korea Herald reported Sunday that both Apple and Google are being accused of “unfair provisions” over the lack of refund options for their respective App Store and Google Play storefronts.
According to South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the two mobile app titans will be required to offer a “customer refund system based on web developers’ refund policies,” an order which Google appears to already be in the process of carrying out in that country.
“While Google will limit its response to the KFTC to the domestic market, Apple said it would consider applying the revised contract terms globally,” said Hwang Won-chul, the head of the KFTC’s Adhesion Contract Division.
The antitrust pressure came after “continued requests” from the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, a civic group in South Korea who first asked the FTC to investigate what they call “unfair sales practices of domestic and foreign mobile app stores” back in March.
Citing potentially “unfair sales practice,” the KFTC is also investigating a complaint against Apple, claiming “users are not able to get their original phones back from repair shops after they have their phones repaired” — apparently a reference to Apple’s policy of replacing a device with a refurbished model, rather than sending it in for repair.
Although it is Apple’s stated policy not to refund App Store purchases, Cupertino apparently will do so in many cases for users who contact support via the “Report a Problem” link from an iTunes email receipt.
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(Image couresy of TUAW)
